Luminous umbrella refers to an umbrella equipped with illumination component. Such type of umbrella has long been used to improve users' safety in the evening, particularly at rainy nights when pedestrians are unable to clearly see holes on the roads and card rivers are more likely to en danger pedestrians' safety due to poor visibility. The problems can be largely solved when illumination and warning functions are added. As a result, hundreds of related patents issued since 1930 have aimed to offer various solutions to achieve the goal. References cited for the present invention are as follows.
Reference One, GB339082A1 “Improvements in or relating to Umbrella, or Walking Stick, and the like” (issued in the UK, 1930), discloses an umbrella in which a light bulb and batteries are installed in the handle to offer illumination and increase user's safety. The light bulb fitted in the handle is used to illuminate the ground and area ahead.
Reference Two, JP2215404A (issued in Japan, 1990), discloses an umbrella in which an LED device is fitted on the top column with batteries being installed on top of the umbrella pole under the canopy as well as in the handle. The LED device is illuminated when the umbrella is opened, so as to make the user more visible to car drivers when walking at night.
Reference Three, JP305 7403A (issued in Japan, 1991), discloses an umbrella in which a light-emitting source is added to the top column with a revolving illumination device being installed in the lower part of the handle and the batteries being installed in the handle. The LED light at the top of the umbrella is illuminated for the safety of pedestrians when the umbrella is opened, so as to make the user more visible to card rivers when walking at night. The safety of pedestrians can be further improved with the revolving illumination device fitted in the lower part of the handle, which illuminates the ground and area ahead.
Reference Four, CN2217326Y (issued in China, 1996), also discloses an umbrella in which illumination devices are fitted on the top column and in the handle.
Reference Five, U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,006A1 (issued in the US, 2000), discloses an umbrella in which a light source unit is installed on the side of the top of the shaft, allowing the light to be fully projected unto the inner canopy. The light is then reflected downwardly to illuminate the surrounding area of the user, also serving as a warning sign to increase the safety of users.
Reference Six, DE 10017274A 1(issued in Germany, 2000), discloses an umbrella in which an LED device equipped with batteries and switch is attached to the top column with screw threads. For the safety of pedestrians at night, the LED light is illuminated when the umbrella is opened. The umbrella can also be used as a flashlight to illuminate the road ahead for the user when it is closed, further increasing user' safety.
Reference Seven, TW-M256706 (issued in Taiwan, 2005), discloses an umbrella in which a slot seat is attached to the slip ring. The slip ring and slot seat are integrated into one unit, in which multiple parallel LED illumination components are installed. The unit is also fitted with batteries and power switch for users to switch on or off the LED light.
Reference Eight, CN2927780Y (issued in China, 2007), discloses an umbrella in which batteries and LED light are installed in the curved handle to offer warning and illumination functions. The LED light installed in the curved handle illuminates the ground and area ahead. With transparent cover, light is projected to achieve the illumination and warning functions.
Reference Nine, US2007/0047222A1 (issued in the US, 2007), discloses an umbrella in which an LED device is attached to the top column with batteries and power switch being installed inside the shaft at the position close to the upper part of shaft beneath the canopy. User can switch on or off the LED light when the umbrella is opened and used at night.
In all the references cited, the light sources used range from traditional light bulbs to modern LED lights, and the posit ions for installation include top column, the upper part of shaft and handle. The design of using completely packaged LED light significantly improves the illumination effect, increasing the safety of users at night. Most of these solutions focus on structure improvement, either modifying the original structures to accommodate the additional light sources or directly attaching illumination devices to the umbrellas. Nevertheless, most of the solutions do not adopt the high-brightness LED lights and the required heat dissipation devices, suggesting that the weights of umbrellas and complexity of component arrangements increase and that the illumination effect fails to truly meet the users' need. Also, the life of LED light is shortened. All these issues make the umbrellas inconvenient and impractical to use. The problems of currently known technologies are as follows:
Changing original structure design to accommodate additional light sources or attaching illumination devices to the umbrellas lead to increase the weights of umbrellas as well as the complexity of component arrangements.
Design flexibility is limited if completely packaged LED components are used for additional or attached light sources. As the structure, brightness and dimension are predetermined, the light effect may not be able to fully meet the users' need. The design for heat dissipation is also unable to be taken into consideration. Moreover, layout of the required lead wires becomes another factor affecting the design of space.
Using completely packaged LED components makes the method of improving illumination effect with high-brightness LED light infeasible, as the heat dissipation substrate used for the light-emitting semiconductor parts is packaged at the same time with only leads or electric contacts being exposed. Strong heat dissipation capability is required if high-brightness LED light source is to be used. High temperature leads to decline in the light transmission rate of the LED components, the illumination efficiency and the length of service life. Ultimately, the overall brightness is not sufficient enough to meet the users' need.